No Pause In Global Warming

June 5, 2015 — Ron Chusid

One of the many bogus attacks on climate science coming from the right has been to say that global warming has not been occurring because there has been a pause. The “pause” was actually a slow down in the rate of warming, not a true pause in warming, and a “pause” has only existed if you cherry pick the data to ignore ocean temperature. The effect was so minor that it appears that correction of a small amount of data makes the “pause” disappear. Jonathan Chait summarized:

Over the last couple of years, the conservative movement, which loves science, has had a completely scientific-based reason for skepticism about climate change. The Earth’s temperature seemed to be rising at a slower rate than scientists had predicted. The global warming “pause,” as it was inaccurately called — it was actually “getting warmer at a slower-than-expected rate,” rather than an actual pause — served as grist for a massive flow of coverage expressing skepticism about scientific models and climate change…

But fortunately we now have an answer. A new paper released today by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration finds that the apparent slowdown in warming was an artifact of mis-measurement. The Earth is not warming at a slower rate. It’s warming at the same fast pace as it did the previous decade:

Of course the right is invested in denying climate science for political reasons, and will never admit they were wrong.

Oh God, there you go again, "conservative" vs "progressive". And you're the man who never stops prating about the holy heights of science. Well, here's a man who actually occupies the heights and if it's scientists you want, well, they don't come much more scientific than him:

I never said either that only a climate scientist can understand or comment on climate science.

The issue is denying the science. The views of scientists in the field are far more significant than a scientist who is not in the field. When well over 90 percent of scientists in the field agree, the disagreement from rare scientists outside of the field have to be taken with a grain of salt. In addition, Dyson’s writings on climate change have been widely debunked.